Expert says Ohio lawmakers already don't draw congressional districts

Wednesday

Apr 27, 2016 at 12:01 AMApr 27, 2016 at 9:21 AM

As a national expert on how political parties draw districts for their own benefit, Michael Li said it was a pleasant surprise when Ohio lawmakers, and then Ohio voters, approved a major change to legislative redistricting last year.

Jim Siegel, The Columbus Dispatch

As a national expert on how political parties draw districts for their own benefit, Michael Li said it was a pleasant surprise when Ohio lawmakers, and then Ohio voters, approved a major change to legislative redistricting last year.

But when Republican legislative leaders argue that they don’t want to do the same for congressional districts, in part because they don’t want the legislature to give up power over the process, Li doesn’t buy it.

“The reality is that in Ohio, just as it is in much of the country, when it comes to Congress, lawmakers don’t draw those districts,” said Li, senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice. “ Political operatives draw the districts, oftentimes operatives who are not from the state, and the maps get very little review from lawmakers.”

Records showed that when Ohio lines were redrawn in 2011, much of the work was done in a Downtown hotel room in secret, where John Boehner, then U.S. House speaker, and his top staff members had great input.

Li spoke Tuesday to a gathering of the League of Women Voters of Ohio, which for more than a decade has pushed to reform Ohio’s redistricting process to create more fair, competitive and geographically sensible districts.

Highlighting the impact of gerrymandering, Li noted that even if Republicans struggle this year with a party split that leads to a Democratic president and Democratic takeover of the Senate, it’s unlikely that control of the House will flip. “That really is remarkable.”

It runs counter to what the nation’s founders would have expected, Li said. They designed the House to be more volatile and the Senate to be more stable, but partisan redistricting has baked in the results of so many races that out of 435 seats, only about two dozen are competitive.

“Many districts are so bad that, even between elections, you don’t even see your elected officials,” he said. “They don’t hold candidate forums or lunch to cultivate relationships with their constituents.”

Critics say gerrymandering leads to more partisan gridlock and more legislating from extreme viewpoints as incumbents worry more about primary challenges than general elections. Gov. John Kasich, Secretary of State Jon Husted, and former Republican Govs. George Voinovich and Bob Taft have expressed public support for a new congressional map-drawing system.

Not every seat can be competitive, Li said, but gerrymandering plays a definite role in determining which party will control the majority of seats in a state.

Republicans control 12 of Ohio’s 16 congressional seats. Democrats also do plenty of gerrymandering in states such as Illinois and Maryland where they're in control, Li said.

Gerrymandering also, increasingly, has a racial component, Li said, pointing to efforts largely in the South to pack black voters into a few districts. Ohio GOP lawmakers, with support from some Democrats, in 2011 created a new district in Columbus, won by Democratic U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty, that made surrounding districts more solidly Republican.

A few other states, such as California and Arizona, have passed redistricting reform and, Li said, there is some momentum elsewhere, including South Dakota, Illinois and perhaps Colorado, on the November ballot. Maryland and Indiana are studying changes.

But, he said, “You’re going to have a lot of voices from inside the D.C. beltway trying to cast doubt about Ohio doing anything."